St. Joseph baseball coach Bryan Hinman spent the summer building a state-of-the-art manual scoreboard to add to the feel of Kuhn Field.

His team wasted no time making sure it worked properly Friday afternoon in its home opener.

The Flashes batted around in the second inning and scored runs all four times they came to the plate during a five-inning, 13-2 victory over visiting First Coast Christian. Almost as important, operation of the scoreboard went by without much of a hitch.

Nease scored four runs in the first and never looked back en route to an 8-5 victory in Thursday’s District 4-6A contest against St. Augustine. Bailey Pattison was 2 for 3 with a double and Alyssa Miranda was also 2 for 3 for the Panthers (6-2, 1-0). Maddie Jones picked up her fifth win in six decisions, pitching a complete game. She allowed two earned runs, struck out eight, walked one and hit two more. Offensively, St. Augustine was led by Taylor Hartley (1 for 4, 2B, 2 RBI), Taylor Allen (1 for 2, RBI), Taylor Sweat (1 for 3, RBI) and Olivia Jarrell.

Mike Davis laughs when he thinks about how his son Ethan or current St. Joseph coach Damon Stephenson would react to the teams he played on at the school in the mid-1980s.

Unlike today’s version, which has ridden an up-tempo attack to win consecutive district championships for the first time since 1976 and 1977, the unit the older Davis was a part of slogged through games that featured far more defense than scoring. An unheard of idea for this current crop of players.

St. Joseph only had four hits on a cold Friday night in Clay County, but it was enough to get a 3-2 victory and start the 2015 season with a flash. Joe Savoia’s only hit of the game drove in two in the first inning. Keystone Heights responded with a pair of runs in the bottom of the inning. St. Joseph plated the decisive run in the top of the fourth. Jake James threw four innings to pick up the win. James allowed four hits, two unearned runs and struck out four. Jack Zaruba came on for a three-inning save. Kyle Hix picked up the loss for the Indians.

Local cardiologists may be the biggest beneficiaries of St. Joseph’s dramatic win over Duval Charter in the Region 1-3A boys basketball quarterfinal.

Lead changes, dynamic offense, acrobatic assists and a game-winning 3-pointer were crammed into 36 minutes of action. When it was over, Jareb Dougherty’s heartbreaking 3-pointer from the left wing with two seconds remaining lifted the Flashes to a 91-89 victory in overtime.

“I honestly didn’t see the rim,” said Dougherty, who finished with 24 points. “I was wide open. I let my shot fly and it went in.”

The Pointe Vedra and St. Joseph boys will play for spots in their respective state soccer tournaments today in region championship matches.

The Sharks (18-1-2) entertain a familiar foe in Choctawhatchee in their 7 p.m. match in Class 3A. The Flashes (13-2-2) are on the bus to Maitland Orangewood Christian for a 3:30 p.m. contest.

Ponte Vedra and Choctawhatchee are vying for the region title for a fifth straight season. The Indians have won three of the previous four, including a pulsating 2-1 win in Fort Walton Beach last February.

“I guess it’s in the Partel blood to be a defender. We like protecting the goals more than scoring them.”

That is indeed a statement from St. Joseph soccer player Jimmy Partel.

Though the senior left back is a defender in name, he prefers to push forward as much as possible. It’s his willingness to do so that has provided St. Joseph another attacking option as it heads into tonight’s Class 1A regional semifinal at home against Tallahassee Maclay.

For the second time in as many matches this week, the talented freshman striker netted the winning goal, this time to cap a late St. Joseph push that eliminated visiting Tallahassee Pope John Paul II 3-1 in the Region 1-1A quarterfinals Thursday evening.